Chocolate-Covered Cherries

Chocolate-Covered Cherries for Valentine's Day

My honey LOVES these. Store bought are just not the same. These are a surprise, so shhhhh, don't tell.

Ingredients:

• 2 jars of maraschino cherries, drained and dried on layers of paper towel (aprox. 60)
• 4 Tab. butter
• 4 Tab. light corn syrup or honey
• 3 c. or more of powdered sugar
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 2 lbs. chocolate, either a mixture of dark and white chocolate chips or other quality  chocolate, melted.

Keep the drained cherries on paper towels drying while you work.

In a largish bowl:

Don't be afraid to use your hands.

Make CERTAIN that your cherries are nice and dry before the next step.
Even if you have to hand dry each one individually.

While cherries are getting firm you can melt the chocolate in a double boiler. If you are like me, who has NEVER owned a double boiler use a small saucepan sitting inside a larger pan with a small amount of almost boiling water. DO NOT let even one speck of water get in the chocolate. It will cause the chocolate to seize, which is sort of like when milk clots. Then all it will be good for is to pour out on waxed paper and chop up for putting in cookies.

You may have a few weepy ones when you take them out to dip, and that's okay. Storing in the fridge will keep them from getting too messy.

After they are all dipped and starting to harden, loosen them and see if the undersides are sealed with chocolate. If not put a little dollop of chocolate on the naked spots and let set. Store in the refrigerator for a week or so to ripen. That means they will get a little more gooey on the inside the longer you can hold out from eating them, but your family will wonder why you have a recent love affair with the fridge if you try to sneak in and snag one too often for taste testing just to "check and see if they are ready".